San Diego Zoo Safari Park

San Diego Zoo's Safari Park
15500 San Pasqual Valley Road
Escondido
CA 92027
USA

Open minimum 9am-5pm

Entrance fee

• Adult 72,- dollars
• Child 62,- Dollars

Annual card (includes San Diego Zoo and Safari Park)

• Adult 149,- dollars
• Child 74,- dollars

There are several daily feeding shows, for the time please ask at the till station.


History:

The San Diego Zoological Society became interested in developing the Wild Animal Park in 1964. The idea of the park began as a supplementary breeding facility for the San Diego Zoo, which would allow ample space for large animals and ungulates. The development proposed would differ significantly from that of a typical zoo in that animals would be exhibited in a natural environment rather than in cages. In 1964, the park was assessed financially and then moved onto the next phase; this resulted in three alternative developments. There was an idea for a conservation farm, a game preserve, and a natural environment zoo. The natural environment zoo development was chosen over the conservation farm and game preserve even though it was the most expensive option. The estimated initial cost was $1,755,430. The main purposes of this zoo were to be species conservation, breeding of animals for the San Diego Zoo as well as other zoos and providing areas where zoo animals could be conditioned. When it came to naming the park, five titles were considered: San Diego Animal Land, San Diego Safari Land, San Diego Wild Animal Safari, San Diego Wildlife Park and San Diego Wild Animal Park. The scheduled opening day of the park was set for April 1, 1972; however, the gates did not open until May 10, 1972. The general layout of the park, designed by Charles Faust, included a large lagoon with a jungle plaza, an African fishing village, an aviary at the entrance of the park and approximately 50,000 plants were to be included in the landscaping. Although the park was scheduled to open in three years from the time of the groundbreaking, the total development of the park was estimated to take ten years. The first two animals to arrive at the park were the nilgai, an antelope from the plains of North India, and the black-and-white striped Grant's zebra, native to East Africa. Other animals to arrive at the park include the gemsbok, a type of oryx from Namibia, the sable antelope, a horse antelope from Central & South Africa, the greater kudu, a striped, spiral horned antelope from East & South Africa, the white rhinoceros who was in danger of extinction, the Indian rhino, the one-horned rhino from northern India, & 10 cheetahs, the fastest land animal, who were brought to the park for breeding purposes. In the summer of 2003, the San Diego Zoological Society and Lowry Park Zoo orchestrated the capture of 11 wild African elephants from the Hlane Royal National Park in Swaziland. The zoos said the animals were scheduled to be killed due to overpopulation. However, In Defense of Animals disputes this, claiming that new fencing costing many times less than the capture and transport would have ended the need to remove any elephants from Swaziland, and that the Save Wild Elephants Coalition reported that there were three other sanctuaries in Africa that had offered to take the elephants. Five of these elephants are now at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, and cumulatively they have produced thirteen babies as of 2013. In March 2012 five elephants were moved to the Reid Park Zoo in Tucson, Arizona, to form a new herd. A bull elephant, two cows, and two baby bulls were moved and in return two cow elephants that had been together for years. Connie, an Asian elephant, and Shaba, an African elephant, were sent to the San Diego Zoo. Connie died from cancer in July 2012 just five months after the move. Shaba was slowly introduced into the herd in February 2013. The California wildfires that officially started on October 21, 2007, burned 600 acres (2.4 km2) of native habitat preserved in the park and caused it to temporarily close. The park also moved many of their endangered animals out of danger. The fire did not reach any of the main enclosures, and no animals were killed directly by the fire, although deaths of a clapper rail and kiang were attributed to indirect effects of the blaze. On June 30, 2010 the San Diego Zoo board of trustees voted to change the name of the park from the Wild Animal Park to the San Diego Zoo Safari Park to clarify what it offers, since some visitors were unclear as to the difference between the zoo proper and the "animal park". The name "safari" is supposed to emphasize "the park's spacious enclosures of free-ranging animals" (as opposed to "the closer quarters of the zoo"), encouraging visits to both locations. In 2015 the last northern white rhino in captivity died a supspecies that has been extinct since 2018. In 2019 the park got the platypus, the only animals of its kind outside of Australia